Many corporate recruiters view workers of Generation Y, those born 1979 to 1994, as weak performers compared to their older cohorts.

In a recent survey, just 20 percent of recruiters classified Gen Y, also known as Millennials and Echo Booomers, as “generally great performers,” according to JobFox, an Internet career site.

Compare that to 63 percent of the recruiters polled who said Baby Boomers (43 to 62 years old) were great performers; 58 percent who gave high marks to Gen X (29 to 42) and 25 percent for Traditionalists (63 and older).

In large numbers, recruiters also classified Gen Y workers as “generally poor performers.” Thirty percent of recruiters said Millennials were poor performers, followed by 22 percent for Traditionalists, 5 percent for Gen X and 4 percent for Baby Boomers, JobFox reported.

The site’s CEO, Rob McGovern, suggests that the attitudes that need adjusting belong more to recruiters, since Gen Y workers will soon become the largest population of working Americans ever.

“Businesses must shed negative perceptions and learn new ways to incorporate Gen Y views into the workforce,” he said, adding that companies must do a better job of hiring, appreciating and motivating younger workers or risk competitive disadvantage.

“Once you begin to understand them, Gen Y is a very impressive group of workers,” said McGovern, who interviewed more than 100 young professionals to write a book on career advice.

Among his findings, McGovern found four major motivators that propel Millennials at work:

• The new reward is balance. Gen Y doesn’t understand the rigidity of the 9-to-5 workweek. Millennials work best when they can set their own hours to get work accomplished. Flexible schedules are highly coveted by younger workers.

• Keep them cutting-edge. Millennials understand, better than any other generation before them, that everything becomes quickly obsolete, including skills. Companies must do a better job at providing new learning experiences for Gen Y or they will seek new opportunities elsewhere.

• Don’t treat them as junior anything. “This is a generation that was taught that everyone is special, that everyone gets a trophy – win or lose,” McGovern said. “They won’t be satisfied working inside the corporate machine. They want to contribute immediately and companies must do a better job of helping younger workers see how their work is important and how what they do relates to the overall goals of the company.”

• Provide stability. Counter to what many think, Gen Y workers are loyal team players as long as they can balance work and life goals, gain new learning opportunities and feel a part of company goals. In a recent JWT survey, for example, 60 percent of Gen Y-ers agreed that an employee owes loyalty to their employer.